The Imperialist Intrigues Against Libya – Revolutionary Initiative (Canada) Statement from the General Secretary

The Imperialist Intrigues Against Libya
Expose and oppose all designs against the Libyan People

http://revintcan.wordpress.com/2011/03/13/the-imperialist-intrigues-against-libya/

Revolutionary Initiative (Canada)
Statement from the General Secretary
March 13, 2011

The Imperialist Intrigues Against Libya
Expose and oppose all designs against the Libyan People

Gaddafi’s relationship to imperialism

In stark contrast to the manner in which the Western imperialists have
responded to developments across North Africa and the Middle East over
the last two months, for the armed opposition in Libya they have been
only too ready to support the anti-Gaddafi movement. For all their
clamoring about the necessity for “peaceful transitions” where the
masses threatened their clients in Tunisia, Egypt, and elsewhere, the
imperialists have abandoned their pacifist demagogy when it has come
to Libya. NATO is pushing for a military assault against Libya that
could range in devastation anywhere from NATO’s operation against
Kosovo in 1999 to the invasion of Iraq in 2003.

To be sure, the Muammar Gaddafi regime in Libya is neither
anti-imperialist nor or a defender of the interests of the Libyan
masses. Despite Gaddafi’s support to national liberation movements
throughout the 1970s and ‘80s, from the late 1990s onwards the Gaddafi
regime took the road of capitulation and collaboration, negotiating
its détente with imperialism and sharing in the spoils of a
structurally adjusted Libya. UN sanctions were lifted in 1999 and by
2006 the US lifted its own sanctions and normalized relations as it
looked to get in on the massive investments opportunities that
European corporations were availing themselves of.

In the 2000s, the Gaddafi regime consolidated its status as a strong
ally of imperialism, becoming a partner in the ‘War on Terror’ and
rigorously implementing neoliberal structural adjustment programs in
Libya. The amount of foreign direct investments from the Western
imperialists – especially France, U.K., Germany, Britain, Italy, and
Canada – have sky-rocketed in the past decade. According to an April
2010 report from the Libyan government, over the past ten years 110
state-owned companies have been privatized and the same report
promised to privatize 100% of the Libyan economy over time.

The Canadian imperialists, for their part, have made substantial
investments in Libya in the past few years and want to ensure the
protection of those investments. Among the top companies working out
of Libya include Canada’s largest oil company, Suncor and the
Quebec-based engineering and construction firm SNC-Lavalin. Amongst
SNC-Lavalin’s contracts include the construction of the Benghazi
airport, a prison in Tripoli, and the massive Great Man-Made River
Project.

For his opening up to the forces of imperialist globalization in the
2000s the Gaddafi regime became tolerable, even celebrated – or at
least so long as his rule was secure. But in the second half of
February 2011, Gaddafi has lost all support from the imperialists.

The emergence of opposition forces in Libya has provided the
imperialists with the opportunity to reclaim the initiative in the
region’s ongoing developments; restore their image as apparent
defenders of justice, democracy and progress; and re-legitimize the
logic of imperialist meddling in the region. There’s no doubt that
they view Libya as strategically significant and recognize that there
is a greater share of spoils to be seized.

As the popular rebellions of the Middle East and North Africa unfolded
throughout January and February 2011, the Western imperialists
desperately struggled to save face in the midst of popular movements
that revealed just how hated imperialism’s comprador front men really
were. The toppling of Mubarak served as a huge embarrassment for U.S.
policy in the region. Mubarak’s Egypt was second only to Israel as the
staunchest defender of American imperialist interests in the Middle
East.

At first, the imperialists cautioned the masses to exercise restraint
and ensure that their resistance would remain peaceful. As the
people’s movements in various countries advanced and threatened to
topple imperialism’s clients, especially in Egypt, the imperialists
saved face by feigning neutrality. When the strength of the people’s
struggles melted away the support for Ben Ali and Mubarak regimes,
some of the imperialists even celebrated these developments
“Revolutions” (with the subtle implication that it was time to go home
and let the “transition to democracy” work its magic).

The Libyan Exception

Yet, the chorus sung by the imperialists when it came to Libya
contrasts sharply with their positions in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and
all the other popular struggles. The imperialists have made no effort
to temper the opposition forces brandishing RPGs and Kalashnikovs
against Gaddafi, capturing city by city by force of arms. Certainly,
the people have a right to struggle by any means necessary. But had
any of the recent mass movements in the region (except for in Iran,
perhaps) taken up this level of armed resistance, the West would have
immediately labeled them as “terrorist” and provided direct assistance
in a merciless military assault.

The opposite has been the case with Libya. The imperialists are
supporting wholeheartedly the anti-Gaddafi forces. Every diplomatic
maneuver taken by the imperialists has been aimed at isolating Gaddafi
and supporting the opposition forces.

The development of an opposition movement against Gaddafi in the
broader context of the protest movements sweeping the region has
allowed the imperialists to conflate what’s happening in Libya with
everything else. The Western press has given top priority to the cause
of the anti-Gaddafi forces, eclipsing all other developments across
the Middle East and North Africa, many of which still pose a threat to
imperialism’s interests in the region. The diplomatic moves and
military maneuvers of the Western imperialists against Libya in the
past two weeks signal that they are actively working to steer the
popular anti-dictator sentiments in the region and around the world to
pursue their own imperialist interests in Libya.

Imperialism’s Intrigues Against Libya

The maneuvers of the Western imperialists must be exposed and opposed.
Any type of meddling or interference by the imperialists will prove
disastrous to the interests of the Libyan masses. Whether the
imperialists resolve upon stricter economic sanctions, NATO aerial
strikes, or outright military occupation, each and every move being
contemplated by the imperialists will only intensify the misery felt
by the masses under Gaddafi. All we have to do is look to the examples
of the Iraq sanctions regime throughout the 1990s, NATO’s aerial war
against the former Yugoslavia in 1999, or the occupations of
Afghanistan, Iraq, and Haiti in the 2000s to see what bloody
catastrophes imperialism has caused in the past decade. The combined
effect of these U.S. or NATO-led campaigns has left millions upon
millions dead, and tens of millions languishing.

On February 26, the U.N Security Council voted unanimously in favour
of limited sanctions against Gaddafi and his close associates. The
following day, Stephen Harper announced that Canada would take the
sanctions one step further by blocking all transactions with the
government of Libya, its institutions and agencies, including the
Libyan central bank.

On March 1, the General Assembly suspended Libya from the UN Human
Rights Council. The International Criminal Court has announced that it
will investigate Gaddafi for “crimes against humanity” for the
regime’s actions from February 15, 2011 onwards. Such charges are
never hurled at the clients of the Western imperialists fighting
counter-insurgency campaigns far more ferocious than what’s being seen
in Libya. Colombia’s decades-long war on its people and the armed
revolutionary forces, claiming tens of thousands of lives; Sri Lanka’s
genocidal assault against tens of thousands of Tamil civilians in
2009; the Philippine state’s notorious disappearance campaign against
thousands of mass activists amidst its own anti-Maoist
counter-insurgency campaign; India’s anti-Maoist ‘Operation Green
Hunt’, the largest military exercise against the Indian people in that
country’s history; and Israel’s invasions and sieges against Lebanon
in 2006 and Gaza in 2009 – none of these anti-people offensives led to
charges of “war crimes” and “crimes against humanity”. These cases do
not diminish Gaddafi’s crimes against the Libyan people; they only
reveal the great terror that will befall the Libyan people if the
imperialist’s intervene.

All diplomatic moves taken against Libya have been aimed at
delegitimizing Gaddafi while strengthening the hand of the
anti-Gaddafi forces. However, with the position of the opposition
forces being beat back and incapable of immediate success – a piece of
military intelligence that the U.S. imperialists began to admit openly
by March 10 – the only option left to the imperialists is to secure
the support they need from the “international community” to impose a
no-fly zone (which would be followed by air strikes). According to the
“international law” of the imperialists, the only legal way to do this
is through approval from the United Nations Security Council. However,
two of its veto-wielding members, the imperialists to the east, Russia
and China, have expressed their opposition to and will likely block
any attempt to legally sanction an intervention in Libya. Hence, the
imperialists are side-stepping China and Russia by taking their
campaign outside UN framework, encouraging the Arab League and the
African Union to sanction imperialist intervention.

On Saturday, March 12, the Arab League, which has suspended Libya,
called on the Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya,
while paying lip service to being opposed to foreign occupation: “The
Arab League has officially requested the UN Security Council to impose
a no-fly zone against any military action against the Libyan people”,
said the Secretary-General of the League, Amr Moussa.

The African Union has thus far rejected military intervention in
Libya, not wanting a strike against Gaddafi to set a precedent that
would threaten other African heads of state. The AU has insisted that
Libya is in a state of civil war and should be treated as such.
Zimbabwe’s Mugabe said: “We took exception to interference by Western
powers … and we absolutely reject their intervention.”

Preparing themselves for this possibility, NATO forces have been
accumulating in the Mediterranean since early March, amassing aircraft
carriers and rapid strike forces. The challenge confronting the
western imperialists, however, is that while they do not want to see
the opposition get thoroughly crushed and are military positioned for
intervention, they fear making any hasty moves that will turn the
Libyan masses and the masses of the whole region and the world against
them.

U.S. imperialism is already incredibly overstretched and there may not
be another set of powers willing to lead up any major operations. But
these restraints do not necessarily limit the dangers that remain for
the Libyan people.

Hence, the imperialist press is working furiously to foster public
opinion against Gaddafi in favour of some sort of military
intervention.

The Libyan masses do not need to replace one set of reactionaries with
another set. Any forces in Libya calling on NATO to bomb Libya are
opportunists at best, if not reactionaries. The Libyan revolution does
not need a NATO campaign of aerial bombing. The overthrow of Gaddafi
remains the right of the Libyan people alone and can only come through
the fruits of their own struggle. An imperialist intervention will
only stem the tide of the revolution and foreclose the possibility of
an expansion of people’s power.

There are a number of forces claiming to have played a role in
initiating the anti-Gaddafi uprisings, including the National
Transitional Council, which declared itself the “sole representative
of all Libya” on March 5, 2011; and there is the National Conference
for the Libya Opposition (NCLO), which is claiming to have played a
role as well. Amongst these forces are military men, judges, lawyers,
academics – and in the case of the NCLO, the royalist Libyan
Constitutional Union led by the pretender to the Libyan throne,
Muhammad as-Senussi.

That certain imperialists have been quick to extend diplomatic
recognition to “the opposition” in Libya does not suggest that what we
have observed unfolding is simply a plan hatched in Washington. The
Libyan masses have sufficient reason to seek Gaddafi’s removal. In a
country with 30% unemployment and 50% youth unemployment, Gaddafi and
the bureaucrat capitalists and compradors have become richer and
richer through the period of neoliberal reforms, while the masses have
suffered immensely. The meddling of the imperialists is merely their
attempt to exploit the class contradictions that characterize the
opposition to arrive at an outcome even more preferable to
imperialism.

Revolutionaries in the imperialist countries have the duty to expose
and oppose the role of their own imperialist bourgeoisies in Libya,
and the people in the Middle East and North Africa have already
demonstrated that the assistance of imperialism is not required to do
away with reactionaries like Mubarak and Ben Ali. As Mao Zedong once
said, “All reactionaries are paper tigers”. Mao’s certainty in the
triumph of the people stemmed from his recognition that all
reactionaries are divorced or divorceable from the interests of the
people.

The growing waves of protests, strikes, and uprisings by workers and
the broad masses all across the world, conditioned by the general
crisis of the imperialist world system, reveal that the position of
imperialism is in strategic decline, while that of the proletariat is
strategically improving. Today’s People’s Wars in India and the
Philippines demonstrate that, when led by a genuine communist Party,
the will of the people for liberation is inexhaustible. In the coming
years, new People’s Wars will emerge all across the world. Out of the
uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East, new and revolutionary
communist Parties can and must emerge. The imperialists and all their
clients can and must be crushed.

Support the people of Libya in smashing Gaddafi and all deals with imperialism!

No to imperialist meddling! No to NATO intervention!

Support the struggles of the masses in the Middle East and North
Africa for New Democracy and Socialism!

Revolutionary Initiative
March 13, 2011.

INTERNATIONAL CALL: Support people’s war in India!

In India an impetuous people’s war against the Indian bourgeoisie and the imperialism is developing and spreading more and more in nearly one third of the districts of the country. It is not simply a guerilla waged by few thousands of fighters, coming from the castes and tribal areas of the country. It is a real people’s war, led by the Party of the proletariat of India, the Communist Party of India (Maoist), in which are involved – or is supported by – millions of poor peasants, women, “untouchables, ” fighting to free themselves and it has already took big areas throughout a dozen of states of the Indian Federation.

The people’s war began where the root of the riot, the poverty, the tribal and capitalistic exploitation, the caste oppression, the plundering of the natural resources were deeper and therefore the contradictions brought by the Indian capitalism ruled by the imperialism were sharper. Today this people’s war is winning masses of young people, students, democratic and revolutionary intellectuals also in the cities and gains attention and support over the world.

Against the people’s war, the Indian State, supported by the imperialists, launched a giant repressive offensive called “Green Hunt,” a real manhunt that hits the poor masses in India as animals to exterminate. The Indian State launched an internal military offensive against the people, waged by hi-tech-armed troops, police units and paramilitary militias, in order to spread terror and genocide in the villages, with raids, crop destroying, massive rapes and killings, selective murders, mass detentions and disappearing – like the recent genocide offensive occurred in Sri Lanka against the Tamil people and liberation movement.

All this with the illusion to drown in blood the struggle of the people for their liberation, with the silent/consent of the imperialist governments of US, Europe, Russia, and their mass-media. The crimes of the Indian State found the internal opposition of a wide front of intellectuals – including the prominent representative of the world anti-globalization movement, the writer Arundhati Roy. And in all countries of the world political activists denounced those crimes and mobilized to stop “Green Hunt.”

A world campaign of information and solidarity has been launched by ICAWPI (International Campaign Against War on the People in India). But we need more than the condemnation of the crimes of the counter-revolution in India. The masses led by the Communist Party of India (Maoist) are writing a historical chapter of the class clash in the world between, on one side, the imperialism and the reactionary bourgeoisies and, on the other side, the proletariat and the people of the world. The development of the people’s war in India is a new proof that the revolution is the main tendency in the world today.

It shows again that Maoism, the Marxism-Leninism of our era, is the command and guide of the world revolution against the imperialism in crisis.

The vanguard proletarians must understand that the advance of the people’s war in India seriously questions the strength balance, not only in the South-Asian region but also on a world scale. That is why we, Maoist and revolutionary parties and organizations, launch a big campaign of support and call to form an International Committee of Support to organize conferences, meetings, demonstrations in various countries, particularly in the heart of the imperialist beast.

With people’s war in India towards the victory!

Maoist Communist Party – France
Maoist Communist Party – Italy
Maoist Communist Party – Turkey/North Kurdistan
Revolutionary Communist Party – Canada
Communist Party of India (ML) Naxalbari

CANADA: ONLY THE PEOPLE’S WAR WILL FREE THE FIRST NATIONS!

On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus arrived to the American continent. Bourgeois historians conclude this was the demonstration of the circumference of the terrestrial globe and the discovery of a “new world.” But the truth is he was lost and a new era of massacres started. Natives of the West Coast estimate the killing of 250 millions Natives by the European settlers in North America. Other sources estimated the Native population in South America in 1492 about 50 millions: after 150 years of European colonization only 8 millions natives were still alive.

From North to South, Native poeple were killed under slavery, victims of rape and starved. Children, elders, men, women, were victims of the first bacteriological wars. Settlers of the United States received a reward for each Native scalp. In Canada, Native children were kidnapped and forced to live in the horror of the residential schools. Canadian bourgeoisie prohibited the Native children to speak their language. We are still searching the bodies of some children who disappeared in those sinister institutions.

Today, Native women are disappearing and are victims of rape, but authorities do not seriously investigate those crimes. The Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics revealed that 19% of all prisoners in Federal jails are Aboriginals; despite the fact they are only 3% of the Canadian population.. Natives are struggling for the recognition of their aboriginal rights still under the uncertain decision of the Canadian jurisdictions. But Canadian imperialism is certain on one thing for sure; their statistics stated the Native people are in the front line of extreme poverty.

The methodic elimination of Native people is an undeniable fact. This genocide started under the feudal period; and today, under capitalism, this genocide isn’t found his end. News from Ecuador, Peru, Columbia and British Columbia (among others) regularly report attacks on Native people. The capitalist states want to chase away the First Nations from their territories in order to secure the exploitation of natural resources to the profit of multinationals.

Since 1492, Native rebellions have found their path. Despite the unequal balance of power, Natives have always found a way to beat off the expansionist wars; the courage of Native warriors have given them the strength to stay alive. But the main reason of the struggle doesn’t have found a solution. The First Nations are not able yet to administrate their land, the waterways and the airspace of their territories, which are a necessary condition to their full sovereignty.

In those Canadian colonies, a New Democratic power must replace the old one. To attain their sovereignty they must reach the status of Nation-state. The Canadian government established the Indian Act to ensure the colonial status of the First Nations. Via the monopole of the Council Bands, Native administrators are ruling the economy and the political and social life of the First Nations in the interest of Canadian capitalists. Those bureaucratic capitalists are an obstacle to the self-determination of the Native people.

Others only insist on the folkloric character of the national liberation struggle of the aboriginal people. They refuse to acknowledge the communist science under the pretext that communism is a culture imported from Europe. Those apparatchiks want to keep the Native people in the ignorance in order to prevent the emergence of a new form of power. This new form of power would certainly have the strength to defend their culture and their territories—that is their full sovereignty—by laws and a well-organized army.

Some anarchists also rebuff the logical conclusion of recognizing Natives’ right to self-determination—that is the possibility for the First Nations to establish an independent national state. For them, this option must be opposed because “all states are oppressive by nature.” By thus denying Natives’ right to political separation, those people are supporting in fact the actual power of the imperialist Canadian state.

Guevarist theories are no better for the First Nations. We must learn from history. The “foco” never helped any nation to break off the chains of oppression. We must acknowledge the First Nations real situation; many of them are facing two big imperialist countries, Canada and the United States.

We must not deny either that Canadian imperialism has been shook by Native rebellions. The war of extermination against the First Nations has found a resistance but it is not over yet. Figures are clear, Native people are in the front line of extreme poverty; this situation will only change if met by a strong and powerful movement, that is a protracted people’s war for national liberation and New Democracy.

The current world economic crisis is far from over. Unemployment rates are the highest since the Second World War. Governments and bankers are planning new ways to “stimulate the economy.” The Canadian state is spending 40 billion dollars (2,5% of the Gross Domestic Product) to help preserve the system. Canadian capitalists and their governments want to go back to the “good old days” when the system was working well for them, but somebody will have to pay the bill. And according to them, it is clearly not the rich who should pay, but the proletarians and the oppressed.

They are explaining that their lost of profits and the huge budget deficit will force them to cut the social programs. They are promising highest fees for public services. Regarding the First Nations, they recently announced the opening of the Northern Projects Management Office (NPMO) and are changing mining jurisdictions around the country. They are asking cooperation from the Native “communities” because they want to secure the huge profits they are making by occupying the aboriginal territories. Meanwhile, mine workers are dying. Mining companies’ criminal negligence is destroying the land and nothing has changed for the First Nations.

Capitalist system is in bankruptcy. The bourgeoisie is asking us to make sacrifices for their benefit and their lackeys are claiming clemency for the oppressor. They’re dividing us with lies. Their tactics is to divide and conquer; ours must be to unite. “Solidarity is our weapon” must become our slogan; we must unite and fight the oppression and the exploitation. Certainly, the struggle will be a long walk and we have many rivers to cross along the revolutionary path. But the sun will shine for all victims of the capitalist system under the banner of the protracted people’s war.

Proletarians and Oppressed Peoples of the World, Unite Against Imperialist Aggression!

Lucho Rojas